Leominster man wrote the book on Boston beer

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LEOMINSTER -- During his normal workday, Norman Miller spends his time writing about cops and robbers as a court reporter for the MetroWest Daily News. But in the evenings, the Leominster resident writes about beer.

Miller recently finished a book, "Boston Beer: A History of Brewing in the Hub," for The History Press.

It's his second book about beer following the release of "Beer Lover's New England," which is more a guide about where to find good beer.

He's passionate about the subject and even writes a column for the MetroWest Daily News called "Beer Nuts."

"If you see me outside grilling, you might see me with a liter mug because I enjoy beer," Miller said.

The latest book is more narrative than his inaugural tome, which he considers more a listing of places to find good beer.

The book represents a growth in Miller's breadth of tastes.

"When I was in college, I was the type of person, I'd go to a party with Captain Morgan," Miller said. "I didn't like beer."

After graduation, he got a job with the Gardner News but soon moved to The Citizen newspaper in Laconia, N.H. Following a time-honored tradition, reporters enjoyed going out after deadline to a local bar.

Beer is the preferred drink for most young reporters on tight budgets, so Miller experimented with four-ounce beers until he found something called Drunken Monkey Barley Wine and realized he enjoyed it.

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"I remember I didn't think it tasted like beer," he said.

He started going to liquor stores and buying single bottles of beer to try new flavors, then began researching everything he could find about beer.

While researching his latest book, he met with Jim Koch, founder of Samuel Adams beer, as well as Harpoon Brewery founders Dan Kenary and Rich Doyle in Boston.

"I sat down for hours with all of them," Miller said. "We talked about everything from how they started to what comes now."

His book if filled with nuggets of information about the beer industry in Beantown since the 1600s.

For instance, Miller said, beer was brewed for ships because it stayed pure longer on ships than water.

"One of the main reasons the Mayflower landed here was they were out of fresh water," he said.

Revolutionaries in the 1700s met in the taverns, including The Green Dragon, to avoid suspicion.

Pumpkin beer dates to Colonial times, when breweries didn't have barley malts for fermentable sugars so they used either pumpkins or potatoes. While pumpkin beer has survived, potato beer hasn't found a following.

By the 1800s, Boston, Philadelphia and New York were brewing powerhouses.

"I never realized in the 1800s, Boston had more breweries per capita than anyplace in the country," Miller said.

Most of the breweries were in Jamaica Plain and Dorchester.

There were as many as 32 breweries at one time, but the last post-prohibition brewery owned by Haffenreffer went out of business on Germania Street in 1964.

Then, Koch left his job as a manufacturing engineer to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather who were master brewers. Koch actually started contracting the brewing of his beer to a Pittsburgh brewery to make his beer using his grandfather's recipe, but eventually opened his own in Boston.

Harpoon Brewery opened on Northern Avenue in 1987.

"Talking to these guys about the way it was then compared to now is incredible," Miller said.

In the 1980s, there weren't any cult followings, and most people preferred Budweiser or Miller beer. There weren't any beer gardens, and finding bars to sell their beer was difficult.

"They basically had to go bar to bar and beg to get them to sell it," Miller said of Sam Adams and Harpoon.

Now there are an average of 1.2 breweries opening daily nationwide, he said.

A representative for History Press wasn't immediately available Monday to comment about the book.

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